Summer Traveling: Christ In Youth –Move Summer Conference @North Carolina and Tennessee

Chiang helping me pack for the trip

What an amazing trip!! We headed out Sunday morning, June 15, at 6 am. It was fun being in the van with all the high school students (11 of them- 6 girls: Taylor, Amanda, Laurel, Maranda, Adriane, and Kat, and 5 boys: Martin, Nick, Jesse, Chris, and Dillon). I was the female sponsor and Josh and Bryan were the male sponsors. Sunday we drove up to North Carolina. We camped at Deep Creek Tube Center and campground. We had a race, boys vs girls to put up the tents. The girls came in a close 2nd but they had never put up a tent before. Our site was beautiful, right on the river. The next day we went white water tubing. I walked a few of the waterfalls. They were just a little too big for my comfort. Most of the river was pretty gentle with little tiny waterfalls. After tubing, we got on the road again and started towards Tennessee.

hanging out in the bus

No AC on the long bus ride

Smiles for the camera

The camp site and tubing

We stayed on campus at Milligan College, where the CIY Move conference was being held. The girls stayed in dorms and the boys say in the dorm apartments. Dorm living is not one of my favorite things, I have decided, especially sharing it with hundreds of high school girls who don’t sleep much and are very loud most of the time. My girls were great, though. The conference itself was so wonderful, uplifting, inspiring, and very encouraging. The presenters did a great job at having deep and relevant speakers and messages. They also had great videos. There were ones with a guy read verses straight from the Bible, they were my favorite. The kids loved the series with the “Toy Box Gang.” They weren’t my favorite but good at keeping the students attention.



The Chapel where sessions were held.

I thought it was a great idea that CIY added to there conference things to help the students stay on track once they get back to life. There was a 25-30 min quiet time of Bible reading/ devotion time everyday. Also the student had to make a life map contract of the next year on a goal they would work towards. They had to write down things they needed to accomplish each month after the conference to reach the larger year goal. The students, sponsors, and youth pastor then hold them accountable for their goals.

Devotion time

Water Fight

Volley Ball Team

Dodge Ball

Scary Gorilla

Scary Josh!

What a great trip!

We feel very blessed to have been apart CIY with our youth group. We got a lot out of the conference and were challenged as well. The time spent with all the great students of the youth group was amazing. They are such an awesome group of kids. They are very inspiring, to know them and their lives and to see where they can go with their faith.

On the Road again...

Well, Josh and I getting ready to head out on the road for two weeks and two trips. First, we will be joining the youth at Harvest and driving to North Carolina for some sun, water, and conferencing at the Christ In Youth (CIY) conference. We leave tomorrow morning at 6am and return late Saturday night. We get to rest at home and then leave Sunday afternoon for the panhandle of Florida to be the missionary speakers at Tri-State Christian Camp. An added bonus to this trip, which we found out on Monday, is Josh's youngest siblings, Jeremiah and Jamiie are going to be counselors there that week. I let you know how the weeks go when we get back. Keep us in your prayer to have safe and successful trips.

Baby at 26 weeks

Week 26 appointment

I had my appointment for week 26. All went well. The doctor said I have gained a perfect amount of weight 14 pounds total. Dr. Marichal also measured my uterus, by measuring my tummy. I am right where I need to be, another thing he was very happy about. We were able to listen to the heart beat which is always awesome. He said his/her heart beat sounds very strong. On Friday I am having my glucose test. Be praying that I pass. Having a positive result could mean a high chance of a dangerous situation concerning baby and the abnormal umbilical cord. Next month, baby and I are having a stress test. I get to sit and read for about a half hour while they have me connected to some things and listen to baby. I am having this done as a precautionary measure since I have the abnormal umbilical cord. I will also have another sonogram at the end of July or beginning of August to check on Baby’s growth. Dr. Marichal doesn’t really think anything will show up but he is doing it just in case. I have started to have Braxton Hicks. I started having them about 2 weeks ago. It is interesting how I had no idea what is was but everyone who I talk to about it seems to know. Don't forget to take our poll, will it be baby Landon or baby Kylah?

And here are more baby belly pictures, so hopefully it can assist in the voting

The end of school and a trip to North Carolina

Well, school has ended. No more teaching 15-20 different kids every hour for a long time. For the most part I am so glad to be done. I can't wait to focus on my next student my little baby. I am going to miss my students at Westwood Middle School though. Even though they can be a big pain sometimes I really do love them. It is incredible how much they have impacted my life. I still talk to a few of my students from last year that went on to high school. I plan on visited school once the baby is born. I have a lot of teachers and students who will be very disappointed if I don't come and visit. Here are a few pictures from the year and the last two weeks.

Lots of love from my homeroom students

My Homeroom class

My 6th period class, who can all pose at the same time

Josh playing b-ball with a couple of my students during their End of the Year party

After post planning on Friday, we packed up in Josh's parents van and the whole family headed to Cherry Point and New Burn, North Carolina. Jon, Josh's oldest younger brother is stationed there. Jon and his squad were working the air show they had this weekend. Jon invited the family up for a visit and to see the show. I was hoping for some cooler weather but had no such luck. The heat index on Saturday was 109. Needless to say Josh and I didn't get to stay at the air show much more than an hour. Since I really don't sweat it was just too much being out in the heat. We did get to see some awesome stunts. Jon got us great parking it was less than 30 feet from the entrance of the air show. We also got bottles of water and met a lot of Jon's bosses and fellow Marines. Once out on the tarmac, we sat in the revered section so we were sitting on bleachers instead of standing the whole time. Josh and I saw the Army put on there stunts. The Blue Angles were there too. I guess they put on a great show after Josh and I went back to the hotel. While we were at the hotel I took a nice nap. Then the family came back to the hotel we went out to eat. After dinner Jon and his girlfriend came over to the hotel and we played games.
The next day we went to Jon's church. It is a smaller church. All the people were so friendly, I felt very welcomed. The service was very good. After church we headed back to the hotel and eat lunch and went swimming. For dinner, Jon's Young single couple's Bible study had a special dinner for us. They wanted us to have a chance to met Jon's friends at church and they wanted to get to know us. What a great fellowship! The food was yummy and the company was great. We played Taboo, girls vs. boys, after dinner. The girls won by 5 points.

Welcome to Cherry Point

This wasn't for our Jonathan but thought it was funny

The Air Show

A truck that uses Jet fuel

The plane and truck racing- the truck won

Parachuters

Some of Jon's Bible study group and the Williams' family (The girl with the red hair and plaid dress is Jon's girlfriend, Stefany.)

We had a great weekend. I realized traveling and being pregnant is not the most comfortable thing. Trying to sleep is very difficult! On the way back Josh's mom let me ride up front which was a lot better. All the animals were very glad to see us. Now we just have to get ready for next weeks trip to North Carolina for the CIY (Christ in Youth) Conference and then the following week we will be in the panhandle of Florida at Tri-State Christian Camp as the missionary sponsors.

A Busy Month of May

Here is a recap of the more exciting things we did this month.

A VERY busy weekend

My parents came to visit for part of the weekend. My brother graduated on May 2^nd so they wanted to see him walk. After my doctors appointment/sonogram we net up with my parents for lunch at Atlanta Bread Company. I took the day off for the appointment and to visit so the whole family was able to enjoy our time together. After lunch we chatted at my parent’s hotel room for a little while and then went home to nap. Josh is loving this pregnant stuff because it means we take naps at least once a week if not twice. Later Josh went off to finish a job and I went with my parents to see my brother walk. It was so weird seeing my brother graduate. It is still hard to think of my little brother, who tagged along with me and my friends for so many years, growing up and being ready for a career. The next day, after Josh and I did a little grocery shopping we met up for lunch again. We went to my brother’s favorite, TGI-Fridays. This visit was so relaxed. Most of the time when we go home it seems like we never have enough time to spend with anyone. Between seeing both of our parents and our friends we are worn out by the time we head back to Gainesville. After lunch we said our good-byes.

Our day was no where close to being done though. We got home got on our swim suits and went to Jen and Joel’s Cinco De Mayo party. Ashley and Matt were in town. They had stayed with us earlier in the week but it was nice to see them again. We didn’t really get to do much other than swim but it was nice hanging out with everyone for a bit at the pool. We left early because Josh’s family was coming into town.

We had a handful of visitors the first weekend in May. Dad Williams had a Barber Shop chorus competition in Jacksonville Friday and Saturday, so the family decided to spend the rest of the weekend with us. We went out to eat at a favorite, Joe’s Place. They have the best salad bar and sandwiches. After a yummy dinner we came home to settle in and watch a movie and eat ice dream. It was a very busy but fun day.

Sunday was a big picnic after church. After service, the congregation went out to the church lawn for a pot lunch picnic lunch. The seating wasn’t the best, since we didn’t bring something to sit on but we still had fun. After the picnic we went home so I could get ready for the Pampered Chef party.

I hosted a Pampered Chef with Ashley as our consultant. Josh and I were able to stock up on some great needed and maybe not so needed kitchen supplies. Ashley had us make YUMMY tiramisu brownies.

Mark moved out the second week in May. We have started converting it into baby’s room, since we will be in this house until December. It has been weird and fun to start. Now our family will grow by one more and this time it isn’t a furry body. My dad said after we ended up with Chang that he wanted the next family member of ours to be pink with soft skin. Looks like he got his wish.

Josh and I went to Janeen’s wedding. She and her family go to church with us. The wedding was gorgeous. She had a garden theme with lots of flowers and real trees and bushes.. Janeen was beautiful and looked so happy. We had a blast at the reception. We sat with Vernine, Mike, Mekayla, and the Crowe family. What great company, we laughed almost the whole time. We, luckily for my tummy, were one of the first tables to hit the food. We had a great waitress. Plus after all the food, Josh and I got to dance. I love dancing. Josh use to take me out almost every month to go dancing. Unfortunately, most of the places around town that you can dance are clubs so people are smoking. Pregnancy and smoke don’t mix well. The great thing about wedding is no smoking! Even though I didn’t have any where near the stamina I normally have we did get to dance for about 2-3 hours all together. I am going to miss not going out and dancing this summer since we normally go out a lot during the summer. This helped me make it a little longer. I know the first mom/dad alone date we have is going to be dancing!

A happy couple

A happy beautiful family

What a cute brother and cute but silly sister

Mom and daughter dancing away

Ready for the bouquet!

Who is going to catch it?

This was my first Mothers Day I could kinda consider myself a mommy. I can’t wait until next year and the years to come. Josh and I were in the nursery with all the babies at church. It made gave us a good glimpse at the future. Three babies… hopefully our four are more spread out in age than the little ones in there with us. After church Josh took me out for lunch. He also gave me a very sweet mom to be card. I also got cards from a couple of my students at school plus two of my friends mailed me cards. I felt very loved this Mother’s Day.

May 14^th was the last Family Fellowship Dinner at church. We will start back up in the fall. To end it with a bang we all met up at a local park/playground and had a cook-out. It was a lot of fun. The weather was nice too. A couple of the guys played basketball against the local kids. It was so funny watching the adults play those kids. I don’t know what the final score was but the whole time I was watching it was tied. Our Bible study group is still meeting but I will miss getting together with everyone for dinner.

Playing basketball- the old guys versus the boys

Goofy kids! I stole these from Kera's Facebook. I had seen them taking taking these pictures while I was watching the guys play basketball. I thought they were so awesome I had to steal them and share.

We had the Bainters over for dinner the next evening. We have been trying to have dinner every other week to plan for the mission trip. Last time we met at there house, this time the came over minus Taylor (she was at a school play or something). It is really neat talking to them about when they first started their family. It is encouraging to see such a wonderful family and think that in years to come ours can be such a faithful and Christ centered as theirs. I have gotten a lot from our dinners and time together. I even have 2 great recipes that I can wait to try out from Linda.

Thailand mission yard sale went great! With all the donations from our church family and friends we were able to make a little over $600. That is enough to pay for half of one ticket. Josh, Linda, and Taylor were out there setting up at 6:15 and the people started coming. We keep selling until around 2pm. Darrell and the Fairrows came over to help with the garage sale. They helped us back up the little remainders. I am still very thankful for the amazing outcome.

We invited the Nate, Michelle and their sons over for dinner. After we picked up the lawn Josh started the grill up. The Fairrows are a new family to our church. We really enjoyed spending some time together and getting to know them better. They have such well behaved children. Their boys are very polite and respectful. I think they will be a great influence like many of our other friends when it comes to raising a family.

Alex is a friend of mine at work. We actually are from the same town and Josh and Jessica went to high school with her. I didn’t know her until I started working at Westwood. She is getting married this summer so I gave Alex a surprise bridal shower along with the help of 2 other friends. I was pretty hard to keep a surprise at school and make sure everyone knew about it. She is an ESE teacher like me which means she goes all around campus to different classes throughout the day, this makes it that much harder. She tutors a student twice a week after school, so I had him and his mother help in making the surprise work. He kept his normal tutoring hours after school with her. Instead of pulling out homework for her to help with he pulled out a riddle. When she read the riddle she realized this was not for him to complete but for her. I also got a hold of her mom and she drove down the 4 hours to add to the surprise. The riddles took her all over campus and finally to the media center where we were all waiting. She was so surprised! Instead of most of us getting her gifts we chipped in to help them pay for their honeymoon. Check out the pictures for so great pictures of the bridal dress show we had.

Surprise Alex, its your bridal shower!!!!

Reading the clues to everyone

My team's TP bride- isn't she just beautiful?

Our sexy brides!

The unbiased judges- Taylor (the son of Susan Shrum, the lady behind the boys) and a friend of his

Our brides.. Blow them a kiss goodbye

Memorial Day weekend

Friday night, we went on a double date with Mike and Vernine to movies. It was so much fun hanging out with them. We watched the new Chronicles of Naria movie and then went to our house for many hours. We stayed up talking until 12:30 1 o’clock. We had so much fun!

Saturday was a pool party at the Strodes. Brian and Brandi invited people over for some fn in the pool and snacks. The pool was the perfect temperate. Half of the pool was in the shade so you could get out of the sun if you wanted. The weather was so nice, warm but not too hot.

Sunday, we spend a few hours at the pool with Jessica and her friend, Thomas. The weather was really nice. The pool felt so good. We played with the beach ball Jessica had bought. After cooling down we came home took a nice nap and then got ready to go over to Chris and Jason’s for dinner. We hadn’t spent much time with Chris and Jason in the past month and was long over due for a visit. The guys love it getting together because they like to talk about politics. Chris and I join them occasionally but typically talk about psychology stuff or how life is going.

Monday, Josh and I cleaned the house, he played video games and I scrapbooked. That evening we invited Jimmy, Katie, and Isaac over for dinner. We always enjoy their company. I can’t wait until our little ones are old enough to play together. Later Josh and Mike had a late night video game session. Memorial Day weekend was a great time to catch up with a lot of our friends we had not spent time with lately. Josh and I were starting to feel that drag that can happen. This weekend made it go away. Jesus knows us so well. Fellowshipping with friends is such an important part of having a healthy life and marriage. Josh and I have noticed in our few short years (almost 4!) of being married that our marriage really starts to dip if we don’t make an effort to spend time relaxing and hanging out with our friends, especially our Christian brothers and sisters. We are so blessed to have so many friends who share our love in Christ. They help us grow in our faith and help keep our marriage strong.

A couple of friends of mine got together at work to have little baby shower surprise for me. I felt very loved. We got so great gifts to help with baby when he/she arrives. When I get the pictures I will post them. A friend took them and I am waiting for her to send them to me. .

In other exciting baby news, Josh and I signed up for our birthing classes. We are taking them in July. It made baby coming seem even closer. Oh, I can’t wait to meet this little one that dances around inside of me all day (and night!). I am trying to make sure I keep getting the baby room organized so that with all the traveling we are doing this summer I won’t be caught at the end scrambling.

Sonogram

Sorry everyone this is so late. Once school is out I think I will be better at getting these posts up in a timely fashion.

On May 2, I had my big sonogram. To many of your disappointment we stayed with not finding out the sex of our baby. I know I know, you will just have to wait. It is only about 12-14 more weeks though. Josh and I were with the sonogramist (is that what they are called?) for about 45 minutes to a hour. Baby was being a little difficult for her and not wanted to show his/her face. She snapped the pictures quick we we actually got a good look. I think she got some really great pictures. I laid on my back a little too long and started to feel pretty nauseated and almost passed out. Josh went and got me some water and I rolled on my side for the rest of the time.

Holding on to the umbilical cord.



Baby was very active during the sonogram. It was awesome seeing what I have been feeling.


Hello my beautiful baby!





A little baby foot!

This is my Baby belly bump the day before the sonogram.


And the close up


After the sonogram, we waited for my doctor appointment which was scheduled about a half hour after we were done. Dr. Marichal was called in for an emergency surgery so we were unable to see him. They sent us to see a midwife instead. She was very nice. I feel bad because I don't remember her name at all. She said the baby look fine but she did see an abnormality in the umbilical cord. Normal umbilical cords have three vessels, 2 arteries and 1 vein. My umbilical cord only has one of each. She said that there is about a 20% chance of something being abnormal with the baby. That was a little scary to hear. She said we shouldn't worry because right now baby looks very healthy. The heart looks well developed and pumping blood properly. Everything else on baby looked healthy as well. She said she was going to send the report to Dr. Marichal and make sure he agreed with her. Later I found out he did agree with her. He is going to perform a sonogram himself at 36 weeks to recheck everything. When we got home I looked up these abnormality to find out a little more about it. Of course while we was in there I couldn't think of anything to ask. I found out that the largest percent of the problems with this condition result in a slightly to fatal complication with the heart. Another huge percent of the 20% comes from abnormalities in the GI tract. The other issues are small normally not very significant deformities in the rest of the baby. I understood now why the sonogramist spend such a long time looking a blood flow, the heart, size of the hands/feet(which are normally indications of problem, if they are not normal size), and the brain. There is not much we can do to make any difference with the baby other than pray that we will have the strength to deal with what God presents us. We are very hopeful for a positive outcome. The midwife also said that many babies could have had this abnormality and5-10 years ago we would have never known about it. I guess with technology come good and bad, or at least worrisome. No matter what happens I know God have a plan and we need to be faithful in trusting Him. He blesses us with so much already. We just ask you will share our prayer.